Creating What I'm Looking For & What Inspires Me

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Pick Up the Gun, My Son: a Little Western

In 2007, I attempted to write a hardboiled crime novel; one that was to be easily adaptable for film. Two years prior, just for fun, I had devised three short essays on different genre pictures using real directors and actors, but which did not exist. The first one was a 1970s Euro crime thriller, which I used as the model for my project. I kept the name and borrowed most of the scenes I had described, but relocated the story to the American South, having been prompted to do so by a dream I suspect was spurred on by my first viewing of Walking Tall(1973), which had started the whole venture.

In between breaks, I decided to partially gather inspiration from a genre which had excited so many of my favorite filmmakers, but which I had not thoroughly familiarized myself with: the American Western. Researching carefully before choosing which titles to sit through (predominantly films from the 1930s up until the early 60s), I fell madly in love with what the genre had to offer cerebrally. And so, as I continued writing The Superkiller, I began sketching out a Western of my own. The idea had actually been swimming in my head for years, having originally been conceived upon being told of a true story concerning a male rape victim’s attack. The notes for my Western began to overtake the time I was spending on my novel until I finally caved in and spent the following five months, or so, working on that story instead. And I’m glad I did. I hope you enjoy it.